Jamie Kennedy Interview

Jamie Kennedy On Uncomfortable

When you’re doing stand-up, are you constantly aware of how the audience is reacting to your jokes?

Jamie Kennedy : I’m totally aware. I mean, you want to make them laugh, but lately for me it’s been less about making them laugh, and more about trying to make points. Sometimes they don’t like that, other times they do.

Do you get fazed if a joke bombs?

JK: It’s not so much if the joke bombs or not -- like this weekend in Denver I had a tough last show because people got kind of drunk, and by the time I did half my show people were talking. They started getting kicked out and the whole thing became a clusterf*ck. So that’s kind of crazy, when it becomes a mini riot and then I’m like, "Oh God, what am I doing? I could be at home watching Saturday Night Fights instead of this.”

Do you like touring?

JK: I do when it’s good. I just get tired and burnt out, but if there’s a demand for it and people want to see me, then that’s always fun.

What comedians are you really into these days?

JK: I don’t really follow stand-up. I love my boy Nick Swardson. Patton Oswalt is one of the smartest guys ever to touch a microphone. Daniel Tosh is so smart, and the guy who wrote a lot of my special with me, Bill Dawes, is very good too.

What were some of your favorite stand-up concert films growing up?

JK: I loved Eddie Murphy, George Carlin, Richard Pryor Live on the Sunset Strip, Bill Cosby: Himself, Jim Carrey: The Un-Natural Act, a lot of different people. I wasn’t planning on being a comedian; I just liked to laugh. Somebody said I should do it and that’s how I started. But I was always more into acting.

Being a stand-up comedian seems like one of the most difficult gigs in show business.

JK: When it’s going great, it’s going great. When you’re playing for 2,000 people that want to see you, and they love you and they’re quoting your lines, it’s awesome. But if you’re in a small club in, say, Chicago, and they’re drunk and screaming out, "Who are you?" -- that’s hard. I just did a club in Springfield, Illinois, and it’s in the middle of nowhere, but the audience was so into comedy, and so hungry, and the guy who put the show on was great, it was just so refreshing.

You discuss your personal life very openly in your new special, and in particular your relationship with Jennifer Love Hewitt. Was that difficult for you to do?

JK: No, because at the time, when I filmed the special, we were dating, so she was cool with everything. But it’s a little sad to watch it, knowing that somebody you cared about in your life was there, and now you don’t see them anymore. But at the time it was fine.

So you don't actually get into breakup details in the special?

JK: No, it’s more full stories about what goes on in relationships.

And she was cool with that at the time?

JK: Yeah, she’s hilarious. She’s very funny and very smart. She would actually give me some notes about what she liked and what she didn’t. She was actually very instrumental.

Did the two of you meet originally on the set of Ghost Whisperer?

JK: Pretty much. I met her before at a couple of Hollywood functions.

Was there an immediate attraction or more of a slow build?

JK: Are you going to write the whole article about this, dude? She’s got a new boyfriend.

Is it tough as a celebrity to have your personal life play itself out in the media?

JK: No, it’s not that. It’s just when you know something is written about you that’s not true, and you try to defend yourself and people call you a baby or a whiner. It’s tough when it’s lies. But look, it’s what you sign up for. It’s part of the game.

Do you remember your first big paycheck?

JK: I remember I made $12,000 the year before from different odd jobs, and the next year I made $99,000 on a Blockbuster commercial. It was a big campaign in Europe.